Minimum Wage Boost Wins Senate And House Approval

CHRISTOPHER KEATING and DANIELA ALTIMARI

HARTFORD — The state's minimum wage will increase to $10.10 per hour by 2017 under a controversial bill approved Wednesday by both the state Senate and the House of Representatives on largely party line votes.

The Senate passed the measure by 21 to 14, with all Republicans and one Democrat — Sen. Joan Hartley of Waterbury — voting no. One senator was absent.

The House vote was 87 to 54, and all 87 supporters were Democrats. Four House Democrats, including Representatives John Hampton of Simsbury and Joe Diminico of Manchester, joined with Republicans against the measure.

The bill would boost the wage from the current rate of $8.70 per hour to $10.10 in a series of steps over three years.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy intends to sign the bill Thursday at 6 p.m. at Café Beauregard, the New Britain restaurant where President Barack Obama ate lunch with Malloy and other New England governors three weeks ago before delivering a speech on hiking the wage.

"Increasing the minimum wage is not just good for workers, it's also good for business," Malloy said after the vote. "This modest increase will give working families a boost, and it will contribute to our economy by getting just a little more money into the pockets of people who will spend it in their communities."

In a sign of the importance of the measure to the White House and the Democratic Party, Obama released a statement soon after the vote in Hartford that called upon Congress to do the same as Connecticut lawmakers.

"I hope members of Congress, governors, state legislators and business leaders across our country will follow Connecticut's lead to help ensure that no American who works fulltime has to raise a family in poverty and that every American who works hard has the chance to get ahead," Obama said.

With the vote, Connecticut becomes the first state to legislatively approve a $10.10 hourly minimum wage, the goal set by Obama for the federal minimum wage. Similar proposals hiking the minimum wage to $10.10 are currently pending in Maryland, Massachusetts and Hawaii and last year, Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed a bill increasing that state's hourly minimum wage to $10 in 2016. Several cities, including San Francisco, have higher rates.

In Connecticut, Republicans and some small business owners had strongly opposite views, saying that boosting the wage will hike consumer prices and lead to layoffs.

"We are extremely disappointed in the Malloy administration and the legislature's majority Democrats for increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 today," said the Connecticut Restaurant Association, adding that the hospitality industry in the state employs approximately 145,000 people. "Connecticut's restaurateurs will be forced to cut back on staff or increase menu prices — neither are easy decisions."

The debate was split sharply along partisan lines with most Democrats saying it was important to boost wages while Republicans said the hike would boomerang by hurting small businesses that might be forced to lay off workers. Republicans argued that the hike was "feel-good legislation" that would harm restaurants and mom-and-pop shops, forcing prices up as business owners passed the wage increase on to their customers.

Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat, said raising the pay of low-wage workers is "a matter of simple fairness." He noted the steep salaries of corporate chief executives and said providing a boost to those at the other end of the income scale is "the very least we can do."

Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, a Brooklyn Democrat, said the increase is a minimal one, but it would have a big impact on the estimated 70,000 to 90,000 minimum wage workers in the state.

"Does anyone think the economy is going to collapse because we're taking action here today to pass a modest increase for the men and women who work hard and have the least?" Williams asked.

Like Looney, Williams addressed the issue of income inequality and blasted corporate leaders earning millions.

"Why is it that we discuss at length whether those who have the least and are working full time deserve a little bit more? Do we have that same discussion when we read about the CEOs, the captains of the corporations, who make a million dollars, $10 million, $50 million, $100 million a year?" Williams asked. "We may think those few dollars won't mean a lot because they wouldn't mean that much to the CEO, but to those who struggle in the state of Connecticut, those dollars mean everything."

The increase will add an extra 50 cents per hour to the paychecks of low-wage workers, a sum Williams characterized as nominal.

"There aren't many of us who at this point in our lives worry about being put out of our apartment at the end of the month," Williams said of those in the state Senate. "But there are many people in the state of Connecticut who get to the end of the month and have to make a choice between what they can afford to pay, and if they make the wrong choices there can be a spiraling effect."

Only about 5 percent of all workers nationally earn the minimum wage, but the White House says that raising the rate would have a spillover effect that would help those who earn slightly more than the minimum wage.

But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a report last month that said raising the wage could cost as many as 500,000 jobs nationally.

Andrew Markowski, the Connecticut state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said: "Many small business owners were disappointed by the increase last year but partially relieved that the issue was behind them. Suddenly it's back, and it's bigger. They must be wondering what's next, and who could blame them?"

Republicans said the higher minimum wage would hurt the still-fragile state economy and add another layer of costs for firms doing business in the state. They also said it would hurt younger workers, who already have a higher unemployment rate than the workforce as a whole.

"Increasing wages when the economy is bad hurts businesses and hurts people and causes teenagers to suffer the most," said Sen. Len Fasano, R-North Haven. "Why are we doing this? Can I possibly believe it's just a political flag-waving? Is that what it is? It can't be because economics tell us to do it."

In the House, Rep. Anthony D'Amelio said he knows of waitstaff members who refused to become restaurant managers at $15 per hour because they could make more money by earning tips from customers. As a longtime restaurant owner, D'Amelio said he has registered nurses and others on his staff who want to work one night a week to make extra money as a waitress in a difficult economy.

"I will be cutting hours," D'Amelio said of his restaurant workers. "I will be laying off people. I'm hanging on by my fingernails. I go without a paycheck to keep my people employed, to keep my business going. I'm not asking anybody for sympathy. Not everybody out there is a big business. … We're not helping people by doing this. We're hurting them."

In his wrap-up speech, House Republican leader Larry Cafero of Norwalk said the Democratic-controlled legislature has debated and raised the minimum wage 11 times in his 22 years in the legislature, including an increase last year that pushed the wage to the current $8.70 per hour. The unemployment rate for teenagers aged 16 to 19 in Bridgeport is 49 percent, and the teenage rate is 44 percent in New Haven, he said.

Cafero rejected the notion that business owners are "greedy, money-sucking people" who don't care about their workers. "The mere fact that they have to lay somebody off rips their heart out," Cafero said.

Cafero said that state leaders say they are pro-business, but then they take actions in which they are "punching them in the gut."

"Folks,we just did this a year ago," Cafero told his colleagues. "What's the message we are sending?"

In the final remarks of the debate, House Majority Leader Joseph Aresimowicz said that a fulltime worker earning the minimum wage is currently earning slightly more than $18,000. In 2017, that person would earn slightly more than $21,000 per year.

"This debate isn't about numbers. It's about people," Aresimowicz said. "People deserve more. They deserve better. … The businesses I talk to want customers coming in the door. This bill will stimulate our economy. But more importantly, this bill will help people."

Earlier in the day, the debate in the state Senate began just after noon and lasted about three and a half hours.

Sen. Terry Gerratana, D-New Britain, recalled the pride and thrill she felt when Obama visited her city earlier this month to promote the higher wage. She spoke of her constituents, some of whom hold down two or three jobs just to provide for their families.

"New Britain is a hard-working city," Gerratana said. "This legislation will so help [people] in so many ways."

Republicans laid out a number of objections to the bill, saying it would cost jobs, hurt the economy and fail to substantially help low-wage workers.

"I acknowledge that it is a bill that's going to help a certain number of people in Connecticut, and I'm very glad about that," said Sen. Joe Markley, R-Southington. "The question I would ask, as I would ask about everything we do in this chamber, is what is the cost?"

Markley suggested lawmakers who back the measure are guilty of magical thinking that "flies in the face of common sense and economic facts."

He also questioned the amount of the proposed increase. "Ten ten is not a living wage for a family, either," he said. "If we really want to lift people out of poverty, if we want to give a minimum wage that allows somebody to support a family, we should be talking about $20 an hour."

Republicans offered a number of amendments, such as tying the wage to the consumer price index and making changes to the tip credit, which would impact wait staff. Each of the amendments was voted down in both the Senate and House. Another amendment would have postponed the higher minimum wage until the state's jobless rate improved.

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, a Republican candidate for governor, said boosting the minimum wage will hurt younger workers, especially in urban areas.

"We have an economy that is not doing well. We have too many people looking for work," said McKinney, who described working for the minimum wage at age 15 when he washed dishes in a restaurant.

Hartley was the sole Democrat in Senate to break with her party over the issue and vote against the wage increase. In outlining her opposition, she cited Waterbury's unemployment rate, which is close to 13 percent, nearly 5 points higher than the statewide average.

"I do not have jobs in my district for which we can right now pay the minimum," Hartley said.

In Connecticut, the latest statewide poll shows that raising the wage is popular. By a margin of nearly 3 to 1, voters overwhelmingly back raising the wage, according to a poll of registered voters by Quinnipiac University.

The poll showed a sharp divide among various groups. While 93 percent of Democrats polled in Connecticut support raising the rate, with 6 percent opposed, a majority of Republicans —- 53 percent — oppose an increase, with 41 percent in favor.